On July 22nd, 2013, the COEN initiative announced investment in five new international research “pathfinder” projects which will address key issues in neurodegenerative disease research.

Under the second CoEN funding call, €3m has been awarded for 5 “Pathfinder” projects, constituting innovative and creative proof of principle research and high risk / high pay off studies which if successful will provide a step change in neurodegeneration research.

These projects bring together a wealth of resources and expertise from a number of large research institutes in different countries to tackle scientific questions that are key to the advancement within the field of neurodegenerative diseases.

The funded projects are:

1. Targeting glucocerebrosidase for disease-modifying treatments in Parkinson’s disease
Anthony H.V. Schapira (UK), David Park (Canada), Donato Di Monte (Germany) and Fabio Blandini (Italy)

2. WNT signaling: biomarker and target evaluation in Alzheimer’s disease 
Antonio Cuadrado (Spain), James Woodgett (Canada) and Simon Lovestone (UK)

3. Mechanisms of amyloid-beta clearance in models of vascular cognitive impairment and mixed dementia 
Gabor Petzold (Germany) and Danica Stanimirovic (Canada)

4. In vivo neuronal cell reprogramming for a new regenerative approach in Parkinson’s disease 
Vania Broccoli (Italy), Alexander Dityatev (Germany) and Josè Luis Lanciego (Spain)

5. microRNA as novel therapeutic targets and disease biomarkers in Alzheimer’s Disease, Frontotemporal dementia and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (NEURO-MIR) 
Jochen Prehn (Ireland), Andre Fischer (Germany), Pierre Lau (Flanders), Jose Lucas (Spain)

More information can be obtained at www.coen.org